History of Firefly Sector
Firefly Sector: ''Desperate Beginnings'' Firefly Sector was first colonized around the year 2715 (Old Earth Date (OED) December 2011). During the early chaotic days, Terran colonists disembarked from multiyear cyrosleep onto an unexpectedly hostile planet filled with alien Erazi, Helio & Maar factions, to which the Terran Intelligence Directorate had been completely uninformed. To add to the general confusion and mayhem, a solar storm wiped out communications on the Ark, resulting in colonists drop ships being dispersed all over the Sector. Unable to talk to each other, the once unified colonists were forced to band together for survival into seperate factions based on proximity and luck. (Check out also our new trivia listing @ Firefly Trivia!) The March to War More intent on fending off maurauding alien factions than investigating the now forgotten mystery of the vanished Ceruleans, the colonists began to coalescence into ragtag groupings, which over time grew to resemble formal political structures reminisient of early 21st century Earth. Rather than "countries" or "nations", the colonists pledged their allegiances to "alliances'. The differences were purely semantical. Without a common enemy, and stranded on a platnet with finite resources, it was only inevitable that the former inhabitants of the Ark began to jockey for power and position. Not satisfied with occasional raids on the supply depots of rival bases, the oldest, and most powerful of the Firefly Alliances began to stake out vast territories on the Sector Map, reaping the accompanying benefits. But there was only so much land to go around ... The First Sector War (SW1) Three of the oldest alliances, Apex, Golden Horde & Killers Alliance rapidly staked out their respective spheres of influence in Firefly, around end Dec 2011 (OED). They were rapidly followed in turn by many others, including The Warriors, Veni Vidi Vici, Vertex, Solo Alliance, Masterminds, etc Attracted by the rich supply of abandoned low level Maar bases (L20 to L75) towards the western and eastern extremes of Firefly, the major alliances naturally gravitated towards the relatively less hostile terrain at the edges of the sector, whilst abandoning the center. Commander levels for SW1 were comparatively low, with the founding commander of Golden Horde, chopstickz topping the entire sector at just over L500. Consequently, the riches of Firefly sector's center were off limits to the colonists for SW1, defended as they were by high level Maar factions. Apex and Golden Horde chose the eastern & western extremes of the sector respectively. With this choice of geography, both alliances were, for all practical purposes, insulated from territorial attack by the other. Solar activity by Cerulea's sun limited communications to a maximum of 25K bases for each alliance's communications center, while around 30K bases would seperate both alliances at their zenith. Apex-Browncoats Attracted by the rich crystal and gas resources at the North Eastern corner of the map, as well as a readily defensible position far from any other major power, Apex rapidly expanded to encompass the entire North East. No significant opposition was met until commanders decided to forage south in search of additional resources. Unknown to Apex Intelligence, a previously unencounted alliance, the Browncoats, had established themselves with impressive speed around the mid-East, and were blocking the road South. It was either fight or accept containment for both sides Killers-Golden Horde Meanwhile, the Killers Alliance was to play a major role in the opening skirmishes of SW1 on the western front. Starting out at the North Western corner of Firefly, it was only inevitable that rapid expansion of both The Killers & the western based Golden Horde would find rival alliance commanders in close proximity. Till this day, it is unclear who fired the first shot. But the resulting war would be devastating for both sides. After a long stalemate, and impatient with defensive L500 walling by Golden Horde, the warlike Killers decided to execute a rarely used Orbital jump manuveur to paradrop to the Eastern extreme of Firefly in search of new territory. A highly risky and daring move, the Orbital jump resulted in not inconsiderable casualties amongst the Killers. But it allowed them to open a new front in SW1 with impressive operational tempo. Apex-Ghosts To honor the loss of their comrades in battle as well as during the Jump, The Killers briefly renamed themselves the Ghosts, as a reminder of those who had fallen. Establishing themselves rapidly at the South Eastern corner the Killers rapidly expanded northwards, coming into contact with the southbound Apex vanguard almost within a day or two of landing. Eastern superpower combat in SW1 ended with the formal merging of Apex & The Killers, into an mega-alliance that was to dominate the entire eastern front with alarming speed. Whilst a pletora of smaller alliances still dotted the eastern front, the unified Apex-Killers war machine was to burst westward with unmatched ferocity. Utilizing terrifying technological upgrades raided from ancient Cerulean science, the Alliance was to overwhelm, in rapid succession, L350 and L500 chokepoints on the road west. Whilst externally unmatched in power, the eastern mega-alliance was an uneasy one, between the peaceful Apexians and the warlike Killers. The tinder was dry, and all that was needed was a match. Golden Horde-Veni Vidi Vici Action on the western front did not cease with the orbital jump of the Killers. Capitalizing on the disruption to Golden Horde operations that the Killers' assault had caused, a powerful new group, Veni Vidi Vici (VVV), fourth in the sector in terms of commander power, had established themselves in the South West. They were accompanied by a pletora of smaller alliances such as Vertex, Legion, OMBRA and Varden, but were second in power only to Golden Horde so far as the West was concerned. Whilst Golden Horde had, indisputedly superior firepower in SW1, VVV was strong enough to capture over a third of the west, as well as drag the confrontation on for weeks. Facing L500 class fortifications across the entire border with GH, VVV instead chose to flank GH's map territory, and launch devastating "PvP" attacks directly upon GH commander bases. So effective were these guerilla attacks at depleting GH supply depots that senior GH commanders decided to send out tentative peace envoys to VVV. Whilst GH might have defeated VVV in open map combat eventually, the need to continue spending precious warp slots on retaliatory raids upon VVV commander bases was holding back easternly GH territorial expansion. Scholars of SW1 speculate that Golden Horde at this time saw Apex (and later on, the Apex-Killers megalith) as their "true" enemy for long term territorial dominance in Firefly. Whilst GH might have overwhelmed VVV ultimately had the war persisted, a long, exhausting conflict would have slowed down GH expansion and allowed Apex-Killers to develop the rich center first. Both sides therefore saw value in temporarily working together against the gathering threat from the East. Moreover, the 25k territorial limit meant that GH did not have to dominate the entire West to reach its full territorial potential. An additional factor was the foundation of Vertex, which gave the Eastern alliances a combined strength of over 200 commanders. In need of allies to even the numerical odds, GH therefore turned to the only other Western alliance with credible military strength. Peace therefore descended on the western front, and thus, the sector with the formal signing of the GH-VVV treaty in the last week of December 2011 (OED). The Second Sector War (SW2) SW2 began with the schism of the Apex-Killer megalith, and the merger of the reformed Killers with like minded commanders from Space Pigs. Growing rapidly dissatisfied with the resources of the east, which yet paled in comparison to the untapped riches of the center, the founding commander of the Killers, Killer, was to withdraw all ex-Killer Alliance commanders from Apex, back into the reformed Killers. Needless to say, both sides did not have to go very far to find cassus belli. SW2 formally began as the reformed Killers planted themselves at the south westerly tip of Apex territory, and began taking land from their former allies. SW2 ended with the conclusion of the Apex-Killer territorial agreement, which recognized the easternmost portion of the map as Apex territory, with the as yet uncolonized center being Killers' territory. But there was still a long road ahead for both sides... Colonization of the Center The Virus-Waldo Incident An Uneasy Peace Operation Helix Dance of the Three Alliances ...to be continued